Review: Razer Deathstalker gaming keyboard

Question is, does a built-in touch screen justify a 20K price tag?

Ask any maker of high-end PC game peripherals in India, and they’ll tell you how hard it is to sell even the most hardcore gamers a Rs 5,000 gaming keyboard, let alone the premium range that comes closer to touching the Rs 10,000 mark. So it’s clearly gutsy for Razer to release its latest high-end game keyboard – the Deathstalker Ultimate – at an MRP of close to Rs 20,000. It’s going to have to do something quite remarkable to even convince trigger-happy patrons to invest in a keyboard, where they could have opted instead to bump up other aspects of their gaming rig like adding RAM or buying a faster graphics card.

Setting the Deathstalker Ultimate apart from every other keyboard in the Indian market is its unique Switchblade UI. Replacing the numeric keypad that usually occupies the right of any keyboard is a touch interface similar to a laptop’s touchpad, complete with click buttons. The difference is that here, it’s not just a touchpad, but also a touch screen. The touchscreen interface helps make the process of recording and saving macros far more convenient. Switchblade has its own web browser too, with buttons above the screen acting as shortcuts to YouTube and other social networks. You can also pull up a virtual number pad.

Switchblade is a great idea, but I found its practical applications to be limited. I’d much rather access YouTube and Facebook on the PC my keyboard is connected to rather than on the keyboards own minuscule screen. To compound matters, the screen quality isn’t that exciting. So aside from recording macros, the Switchblade UI isn’t something many gamers will use too often.

These shortcomings would have been acceptable, given that the main purpose of a keyboard is the keyboard itself. But, unfortunately, this is where the Deathstalker Ultimate disappoints the most. Like most Razer products, the build quality is top notch, and the chopped off edges lend it an edgy (no pun intended) look. It’s also quite wide; wider than any other keyboard I’ve used. The problem with this keyboard though lies in its keys.

When you think of a high-end gaming keyboard, you think of fully mechanical MX keys with solid tactile response and various backlighting features. The Deathstalker Ultimate has got things covered on the backlighting front, but the quality of the keys leaves plenty to be desired. This keyboard draws inspiration from the Razer Blade gaming laptop, but it’s gone so far as to even carry over the laptop style keys, which are an absolute no-no for any self respecting desktop gamer. The chiclet keys are flat, posses very little travel and lack the tactile feel of even a standard membrane-based desktop keyboard, let alone the more desirable mechanical variants.

Regular laptop gamers may feel at home, but desktop gamers will be very uncomfortable by the mushy feel of the keys, even if the underlying technology offers more tactility than standard laptop keys. So at the end of the day, the Razer Deathstalker Ultimate is a keyboard with keys that serious gamers will detest, and a touchscreen interface that only few are likely to use. Even compared to high-end keyboards half its price – like the Razer Blackwidow Ultimate, CM Storm Trigger, and the Corsair Vengeance K90 – the Deathstalker Ultimate falls way short on the performance front. And at 20,000 bucks, it’s appalling.